“Care to explain where you took my daughter this weekend?”
My stomach dropped. Fuck. Had the school called him? She was eighteen—what business did they have telling him?
“She needed a break from that place,” I said.
He tapped the papers spread across his desk. “A break from the place I pay thousands for every month?”
Asshole. She’d been at Willowbrook only a month and he was already moaning about the cost.
“She hasn’t been home since you sent her,” I said. If I’d known he could find out, I’d have come up with a better story.
“But you didn’t bring her home. You took her to a hotel—to do what, exactly? I’d think twice before lying.”
Heat flushed my skin and my throat tightened, but I pushed the words out. “Why don’t you tell me, since you already seem to know?”
He shrugged. “Here it says she was looking forward to your first time together.” He thumbed a corner of the page, and my blood ran cold. I stepped closer, legs numb. White pages, Kaia’s neat handwriting—copies of . . . her diary?
“How could you?” I lunged for them, and he swatted my hand away.
“Sit,” he hissed. “I could—and can—because I’m her father. She’s my responsibility.”
“You violated her privacy.” My fists clenched. “Whatever she wrote wasn’t meant for you. What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think she’ll trust you after this?”
“She doesn’t need to know. And if she does, it won’t be the end of the world.”
I wanted to punch him. “Not the end of yours, maybe,” I said through clenched teeth. “But can you, for once in your life, think about your daughter?”
Russell let out a dry laugh and pushed himself up. “Can you? Please, sit. This might run long.”
“No, thanks.” I lifted my chin and met his eyes. He planted himself in front of me, arms crossed like he thought posture would intimidate me. “For me, this conversation already ran its course.”
He smirked. “Fine. Short version, since you’re pressed for time: whatever relationship you have with my daughter ends now. You disrespected your mother and me by sneaking around. You can’t seriously expect us to allow it, can you?”
Since when did I need anyone’s permission? Rage sizzled. “Kaia is eighteen. You can’t do shit. I won’t break up with her.” I wouldn’t break her heart so he could stage a perfect family for the world. Fuck him.
“If you don’t—” He rounded the desk, snatched a folder, and slammed it down. “—she can kiss her plans for her mother’s dream college goodbye. I won’t pay. I’ll pull her from Willowbrook, too. Like you said, she’s eighteen. She can pay for tuition herself.”
My insides went to stone. Kaia would be destroyed. Without Willowbrook or tutoring, the SATs would swallow her chances at a scholarship. Another school change would wreck the progress she’d made.
She could come live with me, but paying Ethan had gutted my savings. I needed a team that paid better.
Helplessness clogged my throat. “So you’d strip your daughter of a future because she’s with me?”
He sat, arms crossed, smug and cold. “You don’t care about her future. She stopped therapy because of you.Why go if Ash is the only one who understands me?” He mimicked Kaia’s voice and the words burned like acid. How dare he mock her feelings?
“Did you ever think she might need a different therapist? Someone she could actually trust?” I snapped.
Russell rubbed his chin. “Sure. You can pay for one, Asher. And you can pay for her boarding school and college. If you can’t, she’ll be with you—but without the future she deserves. That’s what matters, right?”
Kaia mattered. Her mental health mattered. Herdreamsmattered. The man in front of me didn’t care.
What we did wasn’t wrong—she and I weren’t family, and our relationship wasn’t immoral. It simply didn’t fit his tidy version of the world.
“She matters to me more than anything,” I said. My voice shook with anger and something worse: fear. I knew he wasn’t bluffing. He would disown her without blinking.
Russell shrugged. “Then prove it. And don’t make things worse for her by telling her about this talk. She’d act out and become more disrespectful. I won’t allow that while I continue to fund her life.”
“Fuck you.” I stormed out and slammed the door.
